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Help, fish dying rapidly!!

Mattant1984

Mattant1984

Member
Joined
13 Jun 2022
Messages
417
Location
Canterbury Kent
Hi all,
I've recently downsized from my 6x2x2 to a 24x18x18 (about 120 litres) and moved some of my fish and plants over along with my Oase biomaster 600 thermo to run the new tank which is fully cycled containing 4 trays of alfagrog and 2 trays of sponges.
(This all took place around the 3rd March)

The main difference with this new tank is that I added about 12-13 litres of tropica aquasoil. This was added straight in without rinsing (as advised on the bag) and I have been performing 2x 50% water changes weekly. I heard the tropica soil can leach ammonia for a while however my test kit isn't showing anything (pic below)

Up until about 5 days ago everything has been fine until I've started loosing fish and pretty quickly As well. In the last 5 days I've lost 6 cardinals, 4 ember tetras l, 3 otos and 1 corrie.
Apart from the ember tetras all the fish were in my old tank and I've had them all for quite some time. They seem fine then I notice certain fish are breathing rapidly then later that day or the next morning they are dead.

Could this be ammonia that's doing it?

Tank: 24x18x18
Filter: Fully cycled Oase biomaster thermo 600
Light: 2x Nicrew full spectrum 8 hours a day
Fish: cardinals, ember tetras and corries
Shrimp: cherries and amanos (all thriving)
Ferts: 0.8g Solufeed 2:14 3x per week
W/C: 50% 2 times per week
Ammonia: 0 (although you may disagree seeing picture)
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 30ish
PH: 7.6
GH and KH: 12 and 15 (need to double check these tonight)
Temp: 24 degrees
I also have loads of water movement so Oxygen shouldnt be an issue

Any help would beach appreciated
20230321_065152.jpg
 
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Think l would do daily W/C for a week or two as it looks a water quality issue. The Tropica soil recommended water changes daily then twice a week before adding fish. Did any of the dead fish get left in for a time.
 
@PARAGUAY I will give that a go for sure, when researching the soil and speaking to others I know that have used it I was told a couple of water changes a week would be fine.
It seems really weied that ive not had any ammonia spikes when testing the water (brand new NT labs test kit)
Yes the fish have been in since the soil was added so would you say it's the ammonia that's killing them??
 
Mattant1984 said:
Could this be ammonia that's doing it?
Click to expand...
Quite possibly the initial ammonia leach from the unwashed aqua soil was enough to cause the damage to the fish, add into the mix you're dosing Urea via the solufeed and have a ph of 7.6 then things in the tank a couple of weeks ago might not have been ideal for the fish.

The actual spike may well have passed now but I'd still do daily water changes for the next week, just to be sure.
 
@John q thanks for the advise mate, I think that could well be the issue then, should I cut down on the ferts for a bit or do you think the damage is done?
Do you think the fish will continue to drop off?
 
Sorry for you losses l forgot to add, in the scenario you describe there is no obvious sign of anything but water quality because of the rapid way the fish are dying. Probably if starting with Tropica soil from start without fish a twice a week w/c might be ok You could have had a ammonia spike , daily W/c can only help
 
@PARAGUAY thanks again, the issue I had was when closing the old tank I had to move fish straight over as the old one was being collected however I thought with a large fully cycled filter running it would cope with any ammonia leach, however I was obviously wrong, You live and learn right!!

First time using an aquasoil and it shows its pretty strong stuff. I'll start the daily wc tonight and fingers crossed no more losses.
 
Shrimps are reportedly more sensitive to ammonia as well as oxygen deficit. I wouldn't exclude a possible infection.
Anyway, unless you identify the source of the trouble, vigorous water changes are probably the best way to go.
 
@_Maq_ I always thought shrimps were more sensitive however I haven't seen any losses with them and they all seem fine. Thinking about it though the cherry shrimp were added a week or so after the fish so maybe they missed the ammonia spike.

Amanos were added the same time as the fish 🤔🤔
 
Do you think you could share a full tank shot or two. And any other images you think might be useful in helping you out. Good quality images are obviously best.
 
@Tim Harrison so here's a couple of tank shots and also one of a cardinal, the fish in the pic is breathing very fast however at the moment all ember tetras and corries seem absolutely fine
20230321_170712.jpg
20230321_170744.jpg
 

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It seems that after they have been breathing heavily for a while they slow down swimming and eventually just lay there breathing heavily
 
Mattant1984 said:
@Tim Harrison so here's a couple of tank shots and also one of a cardinal, the fish in the pic is breathing very fast however at the moment all ember tetras and corries seem absolutely fineView attachment 202779View attachment 202781
Click to expand...
I think, maybe the obvious answer is your tank hasn't been set up long enough to safely add fish despite having a mature filter. It could be the stress of this combined with that caused by the tank move which ultimately proved too much for your fish.

Another cycling video from the Aquarium Co-Op

Hi all, Not a paper this time, but another cycling video from Cory at the Aquarium Co-Op. He sounds a bit world weary on this one, and . cheers Darrel
www.ukaps.org
 
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